Category Archives: Progress

French Guiana

Arianespace is the French company that fires off huge rocket ships blasting great big things so far up into the sky that they dont come down again. Or, to put it in bland corporate language, Arianespace is the worlds leading commercial satellite launch provider.

And the corporation provided me with an excellent satellite launch. I was invited by my friend Aaron Lewis, Arianespaces director of media and government relations and former staffer for congressman Dana Rohrabacher, longtime chair of the House space and aeronautics subcommittee.

Aaron and Iand about 70 engineers, scientists, and executives involved with the rocket and its payloadflew to the Centre Spatial Guyanais, the European spaceport in French Guiana.

At 10 p.m. we went to an elevated viewing platform five kilometers from the launchpad, deep in a cinematically perfect jungle complete with strange bird calls and thick hanging vines. Of course this is French jungle. Me Tarzan. Toi joli femme de serveuse avec le plat de hors doeuvres de foie gras et caviar.

In the distance, brightly spotlit and towering over the triple canopy rainforest was the massive Ariane 5 launch vehicle. The Ariane 5 is a full stack, as rocketeers say. It has a main stage, upper stage, and payload capsule standing nearly 180 feet high, as tall as a 20-story building. This is flanked by a pair of 102-foot solid fuel boosters. The whole thing weighs 1,720,000 pounds (in case you were thinking of getting an Ariane 5 for use around the house).

The countdown began, naturellement in French, dix . . . neuf . . . huit . . . sept . . . six . . . cinq . . . quatre . . .

An earth-bound cumulus cloud enveloped the launchpad. Huge hoses were spraying the rocket engines to dampen the convulsive vibration of lift-off and protect the payload contents from the spacequake of almost three million pounds of rocket thrust.

And then . . .

Ill bet I was the only person on the viewing platform thinking about Adam Smith.

Here, with the Ariane 5, was progress incarnate. Progress is impossible without the three elemental human activities identified by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations: pursuit of self-interest, division of labor, and trade. Therefore progress cannot be made except through the exercise of market freedoms.

The market freedoms may be exercised imperfectly, like my own exercise program. But the triathlon of capitalism must be run, swum, and cycled in some way, shape, or form. Otherwise progress comes to a halt. Venezuela. Cuba. North Korea. Q.E.D.

Arianespace pursues self-interest. It may have gotten its startup funding with French government and European Space Agency money, but its no NASA. Arianespace was always intended to make money, and it does. More than half of the commercial satellites in orbit today were put there by Arianespaces rockets.

Those rocketsthe light-payload Vega, the medium-payload Soyuz (a hot-rod version of the Russian launch vehicle), and the heavy-payload Ariane 5are division of labor perfectly exemplified. An individual could not build a rocket like these, no matter what his wealth or how much time he was allotted.

Hed have to be three Pythagoreans of a mathematician and a hundred kinds of engineer, a physicist-on-wheels faster than those of Stephen Hawking, the sort of computer whiz whod make Bill Gates call tech support, an electrician, a metallurgist, a welder, a bomb disposal squad (that being what a rocket at blast-off is really doing), and own a very long ladder and be able to count down from ten to one (in French).

As for trade, the launch was a business deal putting two privately owned communications satellites in orbit, one from the American company ViaSat and one from its European competitor Eutelsat. The deal was made by Arianespace in cooperation with its principal rocket-building contractor Airbus and Airbuss rival Boeing, which manufactured Viasats satellite. The invisible hand of the marketplace doesnt get much more unseen than what I was looking at.

Progress is made in an amazing fashion. But the Smithian principles behind progress seem to be, currently, unfashionable.

Pursuit of self-interest is tweeted away in the White House.

Division of labor remains an undifferentiated muddle in Congress. There are 500-some key presidential appointments that need Senate confirmation. As of June 21, 43 appointees had been confirmed.

And opposition to freedom of trade is hot in the Oval Office and the House of Representatives and bothered in the Senate.

Democrats are no better. Theyre pursuing self-interest by running off the lemming cliff of leftism, failing to divvy up labor while they all do the same thingshriek at Trumpand showing furious opposition to market liberties. Charles Murray was chased off the campus of Middlebury College when he attempted to engage in some free trade in ideas.

Progress itself is out of vogue. The food Luddites urge us to eat the locally sourced, organic, pesticide-lacking, GMO-free diet of our ancestors, who had average lifespans of well over 30 years.

Modern transport is rejected in favor of the primitive bicycle. Mature adults wearing Lycra cycling shorts are as barbaric in appearance as naked early Britons painted with woad.

Medical advances are renounced as the public consults the witch doctors of health care insurance instead of the M.D.s of health care treatment.

A regression to nave child-like thinking marks the concern with animal rights. Animals will have rights when animals have responsibilities. Ill quit shooting birds when birds feel obliged to clean the hood of my car that theyve soiled. And not exploiting animals means letting animals exploit us, as snacks perhapsthe kind the saber-toothed tigers of yore enjoyed.

Due to reactionary hysteria about the invention that did the most to advance civilizationthe gunId be severely restricted in my ability to defend myself against a saber-toothed tiger trying to eat me. As it is, in some state and local jurisdictions, gun use is already so limited by law that Id have to hunt deer by reasoning with them or using kung fu.

And alternative sources of energy mean a reversion to the kind of wind power that allowed Ferdinand Magellan to sail around the world in a mere three years. While solar power rebuffs every progressive human accomplishment since Homo erectus discovered how to make fire 600,000 years ago.

The very word progressive has been stolen by the savage pagan horde of speech thieves who previously made away with liberal, climate, privilege, gender, inclusion, safe space, and the trigger warning I was going to give the saber-toothed tiger.

I blame this lack of progressor this lack of interest in making any progresson progress having become boring.

Of course progress wasnt boring for me at the moment, with the Ariane 5 about to lift off. But I was in an exceptional situation.

Looking around at the unexceptional situations of modern daily life, progress appears to be tedious indeed.

With what excitement and anticipation did people once say, Theres a machine for that.

With what apathy and indifference do people now say, Theres an app for that.

Imagine a person from even 15 years ago being told that what the future holds is humanity looking at its phone all day.

Here are our contemporary great leaps forward:

The Internet so filled with cinders and slag that searching for information there is as much fun as sifting through the ashes of the Great Library of Alexandria.

GPS giving us directions in the manner of a New Hampshire Yankee farmer leaning on a fence rail and chewing a blade of hay. Go on down to where old Maude Frick used to live and then turn right at the place where the barn burned down in 1958.

Uber. If Taxi Driver gets remade it wont star Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster, it will star Elizabeth Warren in a driverless car.

Driverless cars. Whats next, eaterless meals?

We have the means to binge-watch TV, which, speaking of eaterless meals, is as delightful as our having the means to binge-eat kale.

While wearing earbuds. Theyre a sort of reverse hearing aid that block out anything worth listening to. The millennial generations motto is Huh?

You can hear millennials proclaim their slogan in the proliferation of artisanal coffee shops (although what I really need is a bar) that have replaced brick-and-mortar retail establishments because of Amazon.

Amazon has transformed shopping from a pleasurable excursion and happy social interaction into something more like going into the outhouse with a Sears catalogue to browse and use as Charmin.

Amazon also takes all the sharp, eye-for-a-bargain intelligence out of shopping. But thats okay because we dont need real intelligence. We have artificial intelligenceeverywhere.

My toaster has a brain. What a way to kick off a gloomy Monday morningbeing outsmarted by a toaster.

Then I go to work in an office cubicle rather than an office. Instead of hanging out at the water cooler gossiping, flirting with co-workers, and making sports bets, Im overwhelmed by big data flooding my personal communication devices.

And I go home, exhausted, to a smart house. It was bad enough when the house contained nothing more than kids who were getting smart with me; now theyve got the thermostat, the burglar alarm, and the toaster on their side.

Heres a statistic: In a recent survey the Pew Research Center found that 43 percent of American millennials have a positive opinion of socialism. Only 14 percent of Americans over 65 harbor such a view. But if the progress weve seen lately is what passes for progress, who can blame the kids?

Ican remember when progress was exciting. My whole family would drive out to the airport just to see jet planes take off and land. Id get up at 6 a.m. on weekends to watch the test pattern on our new TV, followed by the farm report and Mass for Shut-Ins. Skyscrapers had observation decks on their top floors, not Russian billionaires. The introduction of next years new car models was practically a national holiday. H-bombs made for glorious mushroom clouds and fun fallout shelters in which to play post office with the neighborhood girls. Sputnik produced an excitement so strong that it led to bizarre behavior. Fourth-grade boys applied themselves to multiplication tables and long divisionso besotted were we with the wonders of science. And men landed on the moon. I was a hippie in 1969 and had spent most of the past two years in outer space. But I was riveted by the Apollo 11 news coverage nonetheless.

Even prosaic aspects of progress were exciting. The glass door on the electric dryer put on a good show for a boy used to struggling to keep wet bedsheets out of the dog doo and grass clippings as he hung them on the backyard clothesline. It was all good, including the pain progress brings. A polio shot was a small price to pay for getting an infantile paralysis-panicked mom to finally let me go to the municipal swimming pool and sip from a public drinking fountain.

If we want to avoid a future full of socialists, progressives, Birkenstock-wearing women in pink pussyhats, black-clad men in Guy Fawkes masks, gender-neutral shouters of Resistance!, vegans, PETA members, Middlebury College alums, and other pests who will be starving and begging in what used to be a marketplace but has become an Occupied camp . . .

If we want to avoid all that, we must make progress exciting again. We need a Big Bang theory of capitalism.

And that was what I was getting, not in theory but in fact, from Ariane 5. Trois . . . deux . . . un . . .

And there was light, The light of the world, or as close as mortals can do to radiate it. Vast luminosity reflected from the low cloud cover over French Guiana and night was made day.

I could have read print so small that it would have made for a Moby-Dick pocket edition.

The Ariane seemed still for a moment, like a mother phoenix brooding over her nest of fire. Then the 2,935,000 pounds of thrust took hold. The jungle was perfectly silent for 4.1 seconds, the time it took the sound waves to reach us.

When they did it was like nothing Ive ever listened to before. The uproar was not so much loud as deep, a swelling, a surging, a rolling more felt than heard. Sound waves are waves. It was a pounding surf of a noise.

The Ariane streaked toward orbit atop an arch of brazen fire supporting the firmament.

But, as Melville said in Moby-Dick, There is no steady unretracing progress in this life. And we wouldnt call the time we live in the Age of Irony if it lacked the ironic. The progress produced by the communication satellites atop the Ariane 5 is broadband WiFi connections for luxury cruise ships.

P.J. ORourke is a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard.

Excerpt from:

Make Progress Exciting Again - The Weekly Standard

News & Observer

Triangle power bills could go up $20 a month if Duke Energy Progress rate requests are approved News & Observer Three weeks after Duke Energy Progress asked state officials for a 16.7 percent rate increase for residential customers, the power company is asking for an additional 2.3 percent rate hike to cover other expenses. If approved by the N.C. Utilities ... Duke Energy Progress wants small increase ahead of big rate hikeCharlotte Business Journal Duke Energy Corporation - DUK - Stock Price Today - ZacksZacks Investment Research all 102 news articles »

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Triangle power bills could go up $20 a month if Duke Energy Progress rate requests are approved - News & Observer

Anew analysisby the Center for American Progress finds that 441,300 veterans would lose Medicaid coverage by 2026 under the plan of President Donald Trump and House Republicans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Senate proposal, crafted behind closed doors, contains even larger Medicaid cuts in the long term than the House plancuts that would ultimately result in more veterans losing Medicaid coverage. Moreover, like the House bill, the Senate plan allows states to make changes to essential health benefits, which would reduce current protections for veterans with pre-existing conditionsincluding service-connected disabilities such as spinal cord injuries, amputations, and post-traumatic stress disorderand lead to steep increases in medical costs, harming American veterans and their families.

Contrary to common misperceptions, the majority of the nations 20 million veterans do not get their health care coverage from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs but instead depend on other types of insurance. This includes Medicaid, which currently covers nearly 1.8 million American veterans.

The cuts not only break President Trumps pledge to support veterans, they also disproportionately harm voters in the areas that most strongly supported him. New CAP analysis reveals that in the counties Trump won in the 2016 presidential election, 10 percent of adults are veterans45 percent more than the share who are veterans in counties Trump lost.

The table below shows a state-by-state breakdown of the estimated number of veterans who would lose Medicaid coverage by 2026 under the cuts proposed in House Republicans American Health Care Act (AHCA). (see Methodology)

Authors calculations of state-level estimates of Medicaid coverage loss among veterans are based on estimates from a May 2017 CAP column by Emily Gee regarding overall state-level health insurance losses under the AHCA. We used state-level data on veterans Medicaid enrollment in 2015 from the American Community Survey (ACS) 2015 1-year estimates, accessed through the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, and projected what veterans Medicaid enrollment would be in 2026 under the ACA by assuming that the number of veterans enrolled in Medicaid will change at the same rate as the Department of Veterans Affairs forecast of the total number of veterans in each state. We then assumed that the share of veterans losing Medicaid coverage under the AHCA by 2026 will be the same as the share of all adultswhich, for the purposes of Medicaid, includes individuals aged 19 and olderlosing coverage by 2026. To compute the reduction in Medicaid coverage among adults in 2026, we first scaled up states 2015 adult Medicaid enrollment from ACS 2015 1-year estimates according to total projected Medicaid enrollment among adults in 2026 given in the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Offices (CBO) March 2016 budget projections, which the CBO used in its score of the AHCA. We used estimated state-level coverage losses among all adults aged 19 and older from the Gee column to compute the percentage by which Medicaid coverage will decline by 2026. Finally, we applied these percentage coverage losses to our state-level projection of 2026 Medicaid enrollment among veterans.

Note that this analysis assumes that the share of veterans enrolled in Medicaid in each state remains constant over time, which produces a conservative estimate for two reasons. First, rates of disability for veterans have increased since 2001, and second, the CBO projects that if the ACA is not repealed, additional states will expand Medicaid, extending Medicaid coverage to an additional 5 million people, some of whom would likely be veterans.

The analysis of Trump counties where Trump won the vote combines demographic and income data from the 2015ACS 5-year estimateswith 2016 voting data from theAtlas of U.S. Presidential Elections, which tracks election outcomes in all counties except those in Alaska and a handful of other counties around the country.

Rachel West is an associate director for the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress. Katherine Gallagher Robbins is the director of family policy for the Poverty to Prosperity Program. Rejane Frederick is an associate director for the Poverty to Prosperity Program.

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The Impact of the AHCA on Veterans: State-by-State Breakdown - Center For American Progress

One Republican member of Congress, defending the GOP health care planthe American Health Care Act (AHCA)suggested that concerns that the loss of health care coverage leads to death are overblown. However, the scientific literature on the effects of insurance coverage on mortality shows that the coverage losses from the AHCA would result in tens of thousands of deaths.

The secret Senate bill was finally released today, and it is broadly similar to what passed in the House: It ends Medicaid expansion and makes further deep cuts to the program; eliminates the individual mandate; and reduces funding that helps low-income Americans afford health coverage. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has not yet released its score of the Senate bill, although it is expected to do so early next week.

The CBO, however, has released a score of the Houses version of the AHCA, which is largely similar to the Senate bill. The score projected that, by 2026, 23 million more Americans would be uninsured under the House bill compared to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Using estimates of mortality rates from Massachusetts experience with health reform, we estimate the number of additional deaths resulting from coverage losses from the Senate bill under three scenarios: one scenario in which coverage losses from the Senate bill are the same as under the House version, and two scenarios in which those coverage losses are modestly reduced by changes from the House bill.

Allocating these coverage losses among the states, this analysis also presents estimates of additional deaths by state.

A significant body of research has demonstrated the health benefits associated with health insurance expansion, including reducing the rate of death among the population. One study found that state Medicaid expansions that preceded the ACA were associated with a significant reduction in mortality. A recent analysis of these pre-ACA Medicaid expansions demonstrated a 6 percent decline in all-cause mortality due to Medicaid expansion. Another analysis showed that following implementation of the ACAs provision that allows young adults to remain on a parents health insurance until age 26, mortality rates decreased among Americans ages 19 to 25. In particular, mortality caused by diseases amenable to health care dropped among young adults, while trauma-related mortality did not. And a study of patients with cancer between the ages of 20 to 40 found a statistically significant association between insurance coverage and reduced mortality from any cause.

The result most relevant to the ACA and its repeal comes from a study examining the effects of the Massachusetts health care reform on all-cause mortality and on mortality due to causes amenable to health care. The study found that expanding insurance coverage was associated with a 2.9 percent decrease in all-cause mortality and a 4.5 percent reduction in deaths from causes amenable to health care. Because Massachusettss reform was used as the model for the ACA and included a coverage mandate, Medicaid expansion, and private insurance expansion through the individual market, the data is more representative of the effects of ACA insurance gains than studies looking solely at Medicaid expansion or narrow demographic groups. Furthermore, observers have noted that the studys quasi-experimental study design is of high quality and the next best thing to a randomized control study.

Other parts of the scientific literature have shown how having health insurance, unsurprisingly, results in better health. A recent study of three years of ACA data demonstrated that uninsured people who gained coverage through the ACA experienced a 23 percent increase in self-reported excellent health. One analysis found that the ACA coverage expansion was associated with reductions in self-reported fair or poor health and days with activity limitations due to ill health. Another analysis showed that ACA insurance gains were associated with an increased share of respondents reporting excellent health. And a recent study of ACA-facilitated Medicaid expansions found that they modestly improved self-reported health.

Other insurance expansions produced similar results. Massachusetts insurance expansion was associated with improvements in self-reported general, physical, and mental health. Data from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment showed that expanding Medicaid was associated with improved self-reported physical and mental health and reduced depression.

Insurance coverage also improves childrens health and access to care. Research shows that when parents have insurance coverage, their children are more likely to be covered, maintain stable coverage, and receive needed care. According to the Institute of Medicines systematic review, insured children are more likely to gain access to well-child care and immunizations, appropriate care for asthma, and basic dental services, as well as have fewer avoidable hospitalizations, improved asthma outcomes, and fewer missed days of school.

Taken as a whole, the research strongly suggests that health coverage has a significant positive effect on health. However, a few studies have found more limited health impacts of insurance expansion. While the Oregon study found improvements in self-reported health, it did not detect clinical improvements other than depression reduction. Another study showed no changes in self-reported health resulting from the ACA, although a subgroup analysis did show improved self-assessed health among older nonelderly adults, especially in expansion states. And an early observational study of the ACAs Medicaid expansion comparing low-income adults in expansion and nonexpansion states found no differences in self-reported health between the groups.

There may be several reasons for these outlier results. The studies in question looked at time frames too short or sample sizes too small to capture more significant health impacts. In addition, insurance is a necessary but not sufficient factor to receive quality health care. Receiving high-quality health care requires access to providers, institutions, and services; access to consistent primary care and referral services; choice of providers and institutions; and the delivery of high-quality services. It also requires that insurance policies cover basic and vital services.

Drawing on the Massachusetts experience, we estimate that there would be one excess death for every 830 people who lose coverage as a result of the AHCA. The CBO projections of coverage reductions under the House version of the AHCA would equate to 217,000 additional deaths over the next decade, including 27,700 additional deaths in 2026. (see Table 1) To put this in perspective, that is approximately the number of people in the United States who died from opioid overdoses in 2014 and about twice the number of deaths by homicide that same year.

We also estimate the additional deaths in 2026 resulting from coverage losses from the Senate bill under three scenarios: one assuming coverage losses equivalent to the House bill and two scenarios that show modest reductions in coverage losses. If the Senate bill results in coverage losses of 19 million that would result in 22,900 additional deaths in 2026. If the Senate bill results in coverage losses of 15 million that would result in 18,100 additional deaths in 2026.

In addition, drawing on the Center for American Progress estimate of state-level coverage reductions in 2026 under the House version of the AHCA, we estimate additional deaths by state in 2026 as a result of coverage losses from the Senate bill under the three scenarios. Under the scenario assuming coverage losses of 23 million, annual additional deaths would range from 36 in North Dakota to 3,111 in California in 2026. Under the scenario assuming coverage losses of 19 million, annual additional deaths in 2026 would range from 30 in North Dakota to 2,570 in California. Finally, under the scenario assuming coverage losses of 15 million, annual additional deaths in 2026 would range from 24 in North Dakota to 2,029 in California.

Given the overwhelming weight of evidence, there should be no debate: Health care coverage has an impact on whether Americans live or die. Our data estimates show that under any of the scenarios we analyzed, a significant number of American lives are at stake in this debate. Legislators considering whether to support this bill should keep in mind and soberly consider the catastrophic effect the AHCA would have on so many Americans and their families.

We calculated national excess deaths per year by dividing the estimated coverage losses by the estimated numbers needed to treat (NNT) to prevent one death, based on analyses of the Massachusetts health care reform. Treatment in this instance refers to the number of individuals who would need to receive insurance coverage in order to prevent one extra death. The Massachusetts study found that there was one fewer death for every 830 people who gained coverage; that NNT was consistent with a 30 percent relative reduction in individual-level mortality for persons gaining insurance.

We estimate that there would be one excess death for every 830 people who lose insurance coverage, which assumes that the Massachusetts result would be symmetric for health insurance gains and losses. Of note, our approach is similar to that taken by the White House Council of Economic Advisers to calculate the mortality reductions from the ACA.

Our estimate of the national number of excess deaths each year under the AHCA is then equal to the CBO-projected coverage reduction under the House bill divided by 830. We calculated state level estimates by applying the same methodology to state-level health insurance losses from the Center for American Progress state-level analysis, which combines data from the CBO, the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the American Community Survey to calculate anticipated insurance losses by coverage type.

We also included estimates of the number of excess deaths in 2026 if national coverage losses under the Senate bill were 15 million or 19 million that year. For our state-level estimates, we assume that each states coverage reductions and excess deaths are 65 percent and 83 percent of our estimates of the effects under the House-passed bill, respectively.

Recent debate sheds light on different approaches to estimate the mortality impacts of insurance loss. Bearing this debate in mind, we designed our approach using the most accurate, rigorous studies. We base our calculations on estimates of AHCA-related coverage losses from the CBO and the Center for American Progress, and on Benjamin D. Sommers, Sharon K. Long, and Katherine Baickers 2014 quasi-experimental study of the effects of Massachusetts Health Care Reform on mortality. We chose this study due to its sample size and power, and because Massachusetts health reform, which expanded both private and public coverage, was used as the model for the ACA.

One limitation of our analysis is that the same NNT was applied to all states, although the estimate was derived from the Massachusetts health care reform. There are demographic and health care infrastructure differences between Massachusetts and other states. The Massachusetts population has a higher per capita physician rate, lower baseline mortality rate, higher income and baseline insurance coverage rates, fewer racial and ethnic minorities, and more women, compared to national averages. Some of these factors suggest that Massachusetts may have a higher NNT than other states, meaning that our estimate of the number of excess deaths under the AHCA would be too low, while other factors suggest the state may have a lower NNT.

In addition, the NNT was calculated from mortality decreases associated with insurance expansion. There is uncertainty as to whether withdrawing insurance will cause the equal and opposite effect of providing insurance. Lastly, our estimates capture only the impact of increased uninsurance under the AHCA and do not take in to account possible mortality effects among people who would remain insured but lose certain benefits or encounter worse access to care due to the bill.

We calculated a 95 percent confidence interval around our estimates of excess mortality. The confidence interval contains the range of reasonable values that include our estimate of excess mortality, with 95 percent confidence. Within this range the best estimate for the actual number of excess deaths is the point estimate. The point estimate is the mean and represents our best prediction for annual excess mortality rates, given the current evidence and available data. For instance, in the year 2026 and assuming 23 million more people are uninsured, we estimate that 27,711 excess deaths will occur, and we are 95 percent confident that the true number of annual excess deaths will be between 9,583 and 46,000.

Ann Crawford-Roberts is a medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and a graduate of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Nichole Roxas is a medical student at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and a graduate of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Ichiro Kawachi is a professor of social epidemiology and the chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Sam Berger is the senior policy adviser at the Center for American Progress. Emily Gee is the health economist for the Health Policy team at the Center.

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Coverage Losses Under the Senate Health Care Bill Could Result in 18100 to 27700 Additional Deaths in 2026 - Center For American Progress

President Trump on Wednesday rallied supporters in Iowa by arguing his administration has already made "amazing progress" in the five months since the inauguration.

"While we are here tonight to celebrate the amazing progress that we have already made and we have made amazing progress we're also here to lay out the next steps in our incredible movement to make America great again," Trump said during a campaign-style rally at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The president celebrated Republican congressional wins in special elections on Tuesday. "I want to also extend our congratulations this evening to Karen Handel of Georgia," Trump said. "And we can't forget Ralph Norman in South Carolina."

He asked for prayers for House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who is recovering after being shot on a baseball field last week.

"He was in my office the day before," Trump said of Scalise. "Incredible. We are praying for you. We are pulling for you. You have our absolute support and our deepest admiration."

Trump also referenced Otto Warmbier, the American student who died this week after being held in North Korea for more than a year.

"You look at North Korea, look at Otto," Trump said. "Beautiful Otto. Went over there as a healthy, wonderful boy. And you see how he came back. You see how he came back."

Talking up his administration, Trump said, "Jobs are just about the best they've ever been. We've created almost $4 trillion dollars in wealth. If you look at your stock values and you look at what's going on with our country, we've created tremendous wealth."

"The enthusiasm and spirit on every single index is higher than it's ever been before for our manufacturers and our companies," Trump argued. "After spending billions of dollars defending other people's borders, we are finally going to defend our borders. After decades of rebuilding foreign nations, all over the world, we are now rebuilding our nation."

Trump has not seen healthcare, tax reform or infrastructure legislation passed through both houses on Congress. But Trump talked of withdrawing from the "disastrous" Paris climate agreement and renegotiating trade deals.

Speaking of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Trump said he will either renegotiate or terminate it. He said he initially was going to "terminate" but the leaders of Mexico and Canada asked him to reconsider.

"And I am always willing to renegotiate," Trump said. "So we will see how it goes. But it's been very unfair to the United States.

Trump boasted of his energy policies. "We've approved the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access pipeline," he said. "38,000 jobs. And better for the environment, by the way. Better. Underground. Better for the environment and safer." Talking of the Second Amendment, Trump cited his Supreme Court pick and said "that looks like it's in good shape with judge Neil Gorsuch."

As he did during the campaign, Trump played media critic during the rally. He praised Fox News, saying they have "treated us well." The crowd booed when he brought up CNN. He also referred to the "phony, NBC television network."

Excerpt from:

Trump celebrates 'the amazing progress that we have already made' at Iowa rally - Washington Examiner

That is one reason Erin and Andres Alvarez chose to remain in the hamlet when they realized that the cottage they had moved to in 1999 was no longer big enough for them and their two sons. Last summer the Alvarezes bought a five-bedroom contemporary for $425,000. Besides the good schools, they appreciate the wealth of outdoor offerings, like swimming at two town pools and the sandy Sparkle Lake beach, and bicycling along the North County Trailway, a 22-mile-long paved pathway.

And they have developed strong friendships and a feeling for the community. Of the summer concert series held at Jack DeVito Memorial Park, Ms. Alvarez said, Even if we went on our own, we would absolutely run into, and catch up with, a lot of people weve gotten to know.

Much is happening in Yorktown Heights in terms of development and revitalization, according to Michael Grace, Yorktowns town supervisor. He cited the restoration of the former Yorktown Heights railroad depot, once a station on the New York Central Railroad and now a local, state and federal landmark. He mentioned the pending construction of a rental apartment complex aimed at both millennials and older adults, touting the value of an intergenerational community. He spoke of aesthetic improvements replacing burned-out streetlights, hanging dozens of flags with Yorktowns motto, Progress With Preservation to engender pride. You create the character of the town through its physical appearance, he said.

Yorktown Heightss socioeconomic diversity is reflected in its housing options. Most are single-family raised ranches, split-levels, Cape Cods and colonials, along with some pre-Revolutionary homes. There are a few condominium complexes and rental apartments.

FRANKLIN D.

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In the southern portion of the hamlet, the lots are larger and the homes are more expensive, said Wayne Kokinda, a broker with William Raveis Real Estate.

Yorktown Heightss commercial center bustles with small businesses and strip malls. The hamlet, bordered to the south by the expansive New Croton Reservoir, contains thousands of acres of parkland.

Data from the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service indicate that as of Monday there were 92 single-family homes on the market. They ranged from a one-bedroom, 680-square-foot ranch built in 1929 on less than a fifth of an acre, listed for $157,500, to a 7,758-square-foot, four-bedroom estate built in 1800 on 20 acres with pool and pond, listed at $12 million.

The median sales price for single-family homes during the 12-month period that ended June 7 was $430,000, up from $411,000 the previous 12 months.

While Yorktown Heights does not have a quaint downtown, it does provide shopping convenience, with local stores like Turcos grocery and national chains. The surrounding areas are a quieter mix of residential neighborhoods and parks, including the Turkey Mountain Nature Preserve, which affords scenic vistas from its summit, and Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park, where visitors can swim in a gigantic pool and fish in two bodies of water.

Farm produce and other treats are sold at the county-owned Hilltop Hanover Farm and Environmental Center and the family-owned Wilkens Fruit and Fir Farm and Meadows Farm. Alpacas roam the fields of Faraway Farm.

Among dining choices are Jewel of Himalaya for Tibetan fare, and Peter Pratts Inn, set in an 18th-century former barn.

As for culture, the Yorktown Community and Cultural Center houses Yorktown Stage, which presents musicals and childrens theater; the Westchester Ballet Center for the Performing Arts, offering dance classes; and the Yorktown Museum, featuring displays of Yorktowns history.

Most Yorktown Heights residents send their children to Yorktown Central School District schools: Brookside Elementary and Mohansic Elementary for kindergarten through third grade, Crompond Elementary for Grades 4 and 5, Mildred E. Strang Middle School for Grades 6 through 8, and Yorktown High School.

On 2016 third- and fourth-grade state assessment tests, 52 percent met English standards, compared with 38 percent statewide, and 59 percent met math standards, compared with 39 percent statewide.

About 1,200 students who live in the northern part of Yorktown Heights are served by the Lakeland Central School District. Its 5,800 or so students attend one of five elementary schools, Lakeland-Copper Beech Middle School and either Lakeland or Walter Panas High School.

In 2016, average SAT scores for Yorktown High School were 533 in critical reading, 558 in mathematics and 538 in writing; for Lakeland High School, 519 in critical reading, 517 in mathematics and 508 in writing; and for Walter Panas High School, 514 in critical reading, 513 in mathematics and 506 in writing. Statewide equivalents were 489, 501 and 477.

There is no train station in Yorktown Heights, which is about 40 miles from Manhattan. The Croton-Harmon and Cortlandt Metro-North Railroad stations, on the Hudson line, are 15 to 20 minutes away, as is the Mount Kisco station on the Harlem line. Rush-hour trains between Croton-Harmon and Grand Central Terminal take 45 to 71 minutes; to and from Cortlandt 52 to 58 minutes; and to and from Mount Kisco 51 to 68 minutes. The monthly fare is $311 from Croton-Harmon and $369 from Cortlandt and Mount Kisco.

Yorktown has three free Westchester County park-and-ride commuter lots, including one that connects with the Bee-Line bus to the Croton-Harmon station.

In April 1781, the Continental Armys First Rhode Island Regiment was stationed at the Davenport House in Yorktown Heights. The unit was made up of freed slaves and Native Americans led by colonial officers. The men were charged with defending Pines Bridge, a strategic crossing over the Croton River.

On May 14, the British waged a surprise raid, defeating the unit and killing many soldiers. A planned monument commemorating the event, called the Battle of Pines Bridge, will feature three eight-foot-tall bronze soldiers: one African-American, one Native American, one European-American. The Davenport House, built in 1750, still stands on Croton Heights Road.

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Yorktown Heights, NY: Progress and Preservation - New York Times

This afternoon, the San Francisco Superior Court tossed out 14 of the 15 criminal charges that had been brought by the state of Californiaagainst two journalists from the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), after theyreleased a series of undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthoods possible involvement in illegal fetal-tissue trafficking.

In late March, California attorney general Xavier BecerrachargedDavid Daleiden and Sandra Merritt with 15felony charges for recording what hedeemed to be confidential communications. Today, a judge dismissed14 of thosecharges, but will still consider the remaining fifteenth charge, against Merritt alone, forconspiring to invade privacy.

In a statement today, an official withthe group representing Merritt said they are optimistic about having this charge dropped as well. He also pointed out that Becerra receivedthousands of dollarsin campaign donatins from both Planned Parenthood and NARAL during his time as a Democratic congressman.

More details from Life News:

The San Francisco Superior Court on Wednesday dismissed 14 of 15 criminal counts but the pair are still charged with one count of conspiracy to invade privacy. However the court dismissed the charges with leave to amend meaning Becerra could re-file the charges with additional supposed evidence against the pair.

The court ruled that counts 1-14 were legally insufficient. The state has the opportunity to amend if it can plead a more legally sufficient and specific complaint. The Californias Attorney General filed 15 criminal counts against Merritt, with counts 1-14 for each of the alleged interviews and count 15 for an alleged conspiracy. San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Christopher Hite gave the state attorney generals office until mid-July to file a revised complaint.

As from being a victory for the freedom of the press, this decision is another big win for the CMP journalists who were cleared of criminal charges last year in Texas, as well vindicating them against the frequent claim from pro-abortion activists that they engaged in illegal activity and duplicitous editing of footage to falsely incriminate Planned Parenthood.

There is still a civil lawsuit on this matter pending in California, brought against the CMP by Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation. Unlike these criminal charges, however, that suit does not carry the threat of jail time.

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California Court Dismisses 14 Criminal Charges against Center for Medical Progress - National Review

Doug Finke GateHouse Media Illinois

SPRINGFIELD Day one of the special legislative session ended quickly Wednesday with no movement on settling the states budget impasse, but with more of the finger-pointing that has characterized Illinois government for most of the last three years.

Republican lawmakers said the next move is up to House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, who has yet to outline specifics of a tax-and-spending plan that he and House Democrats will support.

House Democrats again complained about ads and mailers financed by Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Illinois Republican Party that attack Madigan and Democrats at the same time they need to work together to pass a budget or the pro-business changes Rauner wants.

Both the House and Senate spent only a few minutes actually in the 10-day special session called by Rauner to deal with budget issues. They will return for day two at noon Thursday. The states fiscal year ends June 30.

Democrats held a private meeting to review a Republican proposal that calls for spending $36 billion next year and not increasing that amount for four years. Rauner and Republican lawmakers have touted the plan as a compromise that should be acceptable to everyone.

There are some things in it I think we could be in agreement with. There are some things in it we could be in opposition to, said Rep. Greg Harris of Chicago, the House Democrats top budget negotiator. I think we looked at the Senate Democratic plan the same way.

Senate Democrats have approved a $37.3 billion spending plan, but it has not been taken up by the House.

Several Republican lawmakers held a news conference Wednesday morning to say the next move is basically up to Madigan.

It is important that the House Democrats come to the table to meet a compromise that moves forward for the people of Illinois, said Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington, a principal author of the Republican spending proposal. The only caucus that has not put forward a plan of their own is the House Democrats.

Where is the speaker? That is the central question before us today, said Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon.

Madigan said hes in the same place that hes been in for the last 2 years.

That we ought to work on balancing the budget. That means there should be cuts and new revenue, Madigan said. Ive said that for 2 years.

Madigan said House Democrats have been working on a spending plan for several weeks that is not too far apart from the Republican spending plan.

House Democrats again Wednesday criticized Rauner and the state Republican Party for attacking Madigan and other Democrats while also saying they want to work with them to resolve the budget impasse. Rauner delivered a short speech Tuesday night that he billed as a call for unity ahead of the special session.

I think people would like to see us have the unity like the governor talked about the other night, but you cant ask for unity while youre spending millions and millions of dollars attacking the people youre trying to get unity with, Harris said.

Since the Democrat-controlled General Assembly failed to approve a budget by May 31, it will require Republican votes in the House to pass anything. It now takes a supermajority of 71 votes to pass bills in the House, including a budget. Democrats hold 67 seats.

Speaker Madigan and the House Democrats will need Republican votes if they want to end this impasse, said House Republican Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs. It is up to them. The time for just having vague, general discussions is over.

Durkin also said Republicans are done with committees-of-the-whole in which the entire House hears testimony on a particular topic. However, thats exactly what the Democrats have in mind for Thursday and Friday. Thursday will be given over to a hearing on workers compensation changes, not the first time the House has done this. On Friday, the House will conduct a hearing on a property tax freeze.

Rauner and Republicans want to freeze property taxes for four years. The Senate approved a two-year freeze. Senate President John Cullerton said a longer freeze could harm financially vulnerable school districts.

During Wednesdays news conference, Durkin reiterated that the House Republicans arent interested in another stopgap measure if agreement cant be reached on full-year budget. Cullerton has also said he will not consider another stopgap spending plan since the Senate has approved a budget. And Rauner has said he wont sign a stopgap without approval of the other reforms hes been demanding.

Still, Harris said the House Democrats have not ruled anything in or out when it comes to a stopgap budget.

Lawmakers will meet in special session each day until June 30, including this weekend, unless they approve a budget earlier than that.

Contact Doug Finke: doug.finke@sj-r.com, (217) 788-1527, twitter.com/dougfinkesjr.

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First day of special session ends with no progress - Peoria Journal Star

T

he death of the rap artist Prodigy (Albert Johnson, half of the duo Mobb Deep) at only 42 this week, after a lifetime of suffering from sickle cell disease, was a reminder of the devastating cost of thesometimes fatal genetic disorder and of the failure to cure it.

It has been 61 years sincethe discovery of the mutation responsible for sickle cell, which affects about 100,000 people in the U.S., and 30 years since scientists found a compensatory mutation onethat keeps people from developing sickle cell despite inheriting the mutant genes. Last year, when STAT examined the lack of progress, scientists and hospital officials were frank about one reason for it: Other genetic disorders, notably cystic fibrosis, attracted piles of money that led to cures, but sickle cell strikes the wrong kind of people, including African-Americans, and so has historically been starved for funds.

The genetic mutation that causes sickle cell allowsred blood cells to cramp up in a way that impedestheir flow through blood vessels. Those who have the condition can suffer anemia, infections, fatal organ failure, tissue damage, strokes, and intense pain.

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In the last 12 months, there have been glimmers ofprogress against the disease. There are huge numbers of drug companies finally putting money into this, said Dr. Mitchell Weiss, chairman of hematology at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, who is developing a genome-editing approach, using CRISPR-Cas9, to cure sickle cell. As for the National Institutes of Health, the chief funder of basic biomedical research, I wouldnt say NIH is showering [sickle cell research] with money, but theyre trying to help.

Weve known for 50 years what causes sickle cell disease. Wheres the cure?

CRISPR, by making genome-editing easier than ever, is responsible for much of the hope surrounding sickle cell.

On Friday, at a meeting of the European Hematology Association in Madrid, scientists at CRISPR Therapeutics and their academic collaborators will present preliminary results of a study using it to create the compensatory mechanism that protects some sickle cell patients. Basically, that mechanism keeps the body producing fetal hemoglobin, which ordinarily vanishes soon after birth. But even in sickle cell patients, fetal hemoglobin is normal rather than deformed like adult hemoglobin. Scientists have identified several genetic routes to keeping fetal hemoglobin turned on, and even to turning it on again after the body has turned it off in infancy.

CRISPR Therapeutics does not reveal which gene it targeted, but the results were promising. Starting with blood-forming cells from both healthy volunteers and sickle cell patients, itcreated CRISPR-Cas9 molecules targeting regions of DNA involved in the fetal-to-adult hemoglobin switch. An impressive 85 percentof cellswere successfully edited, which kept fetal hemoglobin production humming. Result: Scientistsre-created genetic variants linked to high [fetal hemoglobin] levels in blood-forming cells from both healthy donors and those with sickle cell, the company said in a summary of the study. It compared how well different DNA edits increased production of fetal hemoglobin in red blood cells in lab dishes, getting 25 percent to 45 percent in the cells taken from six sickle cell patients.

The scientists then put the edited cells into lab mice, finding that they homed in on the bone marrow, as they would have to do in a patient to effect a cure. They also measured what are called off-target effects, or edits of genes that werent intended, and found none at the more than 5,000 sites deemed most likely to have them.

CRISPR Therapeutics said it had used several editing strategies to turn on production of fetal hemoglobin, underlining the accelerating progress in taking that approach to develop a cure. Weiss, for instance, is trying to turn on fetal hemoglobin by tapping into the very complicated genetics of fetal hemoglobin.

Cells have molecules that act like Victorian lamplighters: They roam the genome, turning genes on and off. One such lamplighter (in biology-speak, a transcription factor) is called BCL11A; it turns off production of fetal hemoglobin. Weiss is not targeting BCL11A itself (other scientists are considering that); rather, he is using CRISPR to disrupt where BCL11A lands. Just as a lamplighter cant turn off a light he cant reach, so BCL11A cant turn off a gene it cant reach. Expected result: Fetal hemoglobin stays on and patients have enough healthy hemoglobin to compensate for the sickled kind.

One boys cure raises hopes and questions about gene therapy for sickle cell disease

After making progress with this approach editing cells in lab dishes, Weiss said, he and his colleagueshope to launch a clinical trial in three to four years, using money raised by St. Jude but, so far, they have no commercial partner. At Boston Childrens Hospital, Dr. David Williams said he hopes to open his clinical trial, also using gene therapy to target sickle cell, this summer, and is just waiting on final safety testing of the virus that will be used to deliver the therapy.

An even more basic approach to curing sickle cell targets the causative mutation directly.The most encouraging human data so far have come from a genetic therapy being tested by Cambridge, Mass.-based Bluebird Bio. In March, the company reportedthat a boy who received the gene therapy in October 2014, when he was 13, had been able to stop taking medication that helps alleviate symptomsand has not needed to be hospitalized with a sickle cell crisis (as Prodigy was in the days before he died). Nor has hesuffered the crushing pain or bone and tissue damage that results from the inability of sickled blood cells to carry oxygen.

Bluebird uses viruses to carry the healthy hemoglobin gene into blood-making bone marrow cells taken from patients, which is the original form of gene therapy. If healthy genes insert into the DNA of enough cells, which are infused back intothe patient, the marrow makes enough healthy blood cells to cure sickle cell. With the sudden surge of activity, said Dr. Charles Abrams of the University of Pennsylvania and past president of the American Society of Hematology, people say were within 10 years of reaching the goal of a cure, and maybe less.

Sharon Begley can be reached at sharon.begley@statnews.com Follow Sharon on Twitter @sxbegle

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With a rapper's death, harsh spotlight falls on slow progress against sickle cell - STAT

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'The View' Panelists Claim Democrat's Loss Is Actually 'Slow Progress' - NewsBusters (press release) (blog)